


The Language of My Love

by heyitscmei



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Flower Language, Love Confessions, M/M, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Secret Admirer, Sheith Spring Flower Exchange, sort of flower shop au but not prominently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 05:46:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10802979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heyitscmei/pseuds/heyitscmei
Summary: “I got it from a secret admirer,” Keith says. Shiro hopes that Keith didn’t notice the way he tenses before forcing himself to relax. It’s just small talk.“Oh? Do you have any idea who it’s from?” Shiro wonders if he’s just imagining the disappointment on Keith’s face because of his own affections. After a beat, Keith shakes his head.“No… No idea.”--When Shiro finds himself lost for the right words to express justwhathe feels for Keith, he decides to try another language.





	The Language of My Love

**Author's Note:**

> for Myla @mkbgasm on twitter!  
> i really enjoyed writing this and i hope you enjoy reading it just as much!
> 
> thanks to Robert for the quick beta!

The idea strikes Shiro as he's working on an arrangement of flowers for a customer. It’s a confession.

_“I want something that’ll show them how much I care.”_

He wonders how the idea had never crossed his mind before, considering he works in a flower shop. After a bit of time and some internal debate, he finds himself in front of Keith’s apartment, just across from his own, with a small pot cradled in his arms. Looking up and down the hall, he confirms there are no witnesses and he feels silly immediately after as he gently sets the plant down. He gives a few quick, hard knocks before quickly retreating back into his own apartment where his neighbour and closest friend won’t see him.

Peeking out of the hole on his own door, he waits to see if Keith will come, realizing that he doesn’t know if Keith is out or napping. He’s just about to take it back when the door opens and Keith stands there, looking up and down the hall with a confused furrow in his brow, before he finally catches notice of the purple flowers Shiro had left for him. He watches as Keith carefully hefts the pot up and finds the card Allura and Pidge had insisted he include.

 _From your secret admirer_ , in Allura’s fancy cursive because Shiro couldn’t bring himself to write the words himself.

The light flush dusting pale cheeks is possibly one of the most charming things Shiro has had the pleasure of seeing before Keith disappears, plant and all, behind the door.

He isn’t expecting it, when Keith comes knocking on his door later that day.

“You work in a flower shop,” He says. It’s not a question and Shiro’s stomach swoops. He wonders for a minute if he’s been found out, but before he can explain or entertain the notion that Keith might be here to accept his confession, Keith is asking him for help. “I have a new plant and I was wondering if you could give me advice?”

Shiro thinks he could confess properly right here, but when nothing comes out of his open mouth he ends up nodding, following Keith out into the hall and then into his apartment.

“I got it from a secret admirer,” Keith says. Shiro hopes that Keith didn’t notice the way he tenses before forcing himself to relax. It’s just small talk.

“Oh? Do you have any idea who it’s from?” Shiro wonders if he’s just imagining the disappointment on Keith’s face because of his own affections. After a beat, Keith shakes his head.

“No… No idea.”

By the time Shiro’s back in his apartment, reeling from the soft smile Keith had shot his way, he hasn’t confessed, but he’s still happy to have something else to bond over with someone who has so quickly carved a place in his life.

He doesn’t regret it at all.

The confirmation that Keith enjoys caring for the flowers is enough to convince Shiro to continue getting them for him. He enjoys seeing how eager Keith is to learn from him.

And maybe he allows himself the pride that Keith would rather ask him for help than turn to the internet.

So he finds himself bringing another plant and then another. Red flowers and then flowers with petals rimmed with white. Baby blues, and then white blossoms that remind him of bells.

Keith takes them all in, and he finds himself in Keith’s apartment even more often than before, helping Keith water and fertilize them when they need it. There’s something nice about the way Keith knocks their hips, telling Shiro in that playful tone not to hog the sink and he enjoys the way they’ll sometimes start to flick water at each other as they try to shove each other out of the way. And he loves how, when the plants are taken care of, Keith will ask him to stay for a while. It’s the time spent sitting with Keith talking about nothing in particular that he wishes he had more of.

It’s on one such occasion that things shift again, talking on Keith’s little couch as afternoon becomes evening.

“You know what they mean, right?”

“What?”

“The flowers.” Keith looks at him with something that Shiro might dare to call hope in his eyes. “You know what they mean, right? Flower language?”

“I didn’t think you knew what that was,” Shiro responds and it’s true. He’d been under the impression, after all this time, that Keith hadn’t known flower language. Keith shakes his head.

“I don’t,” he shrugs. “It’s something Pidge brought up.”

Ah. He’s going to kill her, the little shit. He can almost hear her saying how she got tired of his pining.

“Oh?”

“She told me it might be a message from my secret admirer, but they didn’t leave anything on the cards. So she said to ask you.” There’s a look in Keith’s eyes that Shiro can’t quite decipher, but could dare to call hope. “You know what they mean, don’t you?”

Keith is looking directly at him, and he knows Keith’s asking more than if he knows flower language. Mouth running a little dry, Shiro swallows and decides to take the leap.

_Convolvulus._

“Bonds. For… for our bond.” Shiro tells Keith, glancing at him, cheeks aflame, before looking at soft, purple petals still sitting neatly in their pot. A small bit of pride blooms in his chest at how they’ve flourished and a sappy sweet part of his heart tells him it’s fitting. Their bond has flourished too.

“Our bond?” Keith echoes. Shiro licks his lips and nods.

“It’s always growing stronger and brighter... like flowers.” He feels a little silly, saying it out loud, but Keith smiles at him. It’s a small, but soft thing, as if he’s thinking over Shiro’s words and likes the realization. Spurred on by Keith’s smile, he continues, wanting to see this through.

_Red Camellias._

This one is embarrassing to say, but the whole situation is maybe a little embarrassing anyways. Having Keith turn to him for tips to properly nurture and care for his potted confessions, all while being oblivious to the intentions behind them, is perhaps not one of Shiro’s finer moments.

Still, getting the chance to care for these plants with Keith, watching the way they thrived under his care and determination, isn’t something Shiro could ever bring himself to regret. The memory of the excited smile Keith had shared with him when that one stubborn blossom finally started to bloom, running into Shiro’s flower shop with eyes lit up like the sun, lights something up inside of him too.

“You’re a flame in my heart,” Shiro says, finally, glancing up at Keith before looking back down at red flowers and deep, green leaves. They remind him of Keith. Gorgeous. Red. Fiery in the ways Shiro could never think to extinguish, should Keith’s light ever be snuffed out, and so, so full of life.

If Keith is a flame in his heart, Shiro is all too willing to let the flame consume it until he’s burning in all the ways that remind him that he’s alive too.

Keith snorts softly. “A flame in your heart?”

“Look, it seemed fitting at the time,” Shiro defends, a little helpless.

“At the time?” Keith quirks a brow. “How about now?”

Shiro feels the way his cheeks grow hot and knows that the sentiment still rings true.

“Yeah. Still fits,” He tells Keith, and is completely distracted by the way Keith bites his lip to stifle a laugh. Shiro narrows his eyes. “You’re enjoying this.”

It’s not a question so much as a statement of fact, but regardless, Keith tilts his head, smirking, and says, “maybe.”

Before Shiro can respond, Keith gestures to the next pot, a small one containing maroon blooms with white-rimmed petals.

“What about those ones?”

_Gloxinia._

“Love at first sight,” Shiro says, picking the pot up and stroking gently at the leaves just to give himself something to do.

“So.... from when I first moved in, all those months ago?”

“Seems like it,” Shiro confirms, “but I just wanted to know you.”

“Well, now you know me. What do you think?”

“There are a lot of things to think.”

“How about starting with this one?” Keith asks, picking up the next pot, filled with small, soft blue flower. “I think I know what these ones are.”

_Forget-me-nots._

“They mean true love,” Shiro confesses. “I hadn’t been sure until recently, but… I know now.”

The time spent together has only ever made Shiro’s affections grow stronger, after all. Quietly and slowly filling him like a glass, now overflowing. Growing stronger with every smile Keith shares with him and every time they brush arms. With every time Shiro makes him laugh, loud and full-bodied and every bit of information that Keith tells him about himself. It grows stronger with every piece he finds himself sharing with Keith, too.

“I think I know what you mean,” Keith says, putting the pot back down and looking at Shiro meaningfully. “What about these last ones?”

 _Lily of the Valley_.

“Sweet love,” Shiro responds. “I guess they kind of go together, huh?”

He can’t quite bring himself to say it out loud, not now, but he thinks in the privacy of his own mind that falling in love with Keith was one of life’s sweeter pleasures. Judging by the way Keith is looking at him, he thinks he has plenty of time to divulge everything else that Keith makes him feel. Plenty of time to lay his heart bare. No rush.

“Like us?” Keith asks, lips quirked.

“Yeah.” Shiro exhales. “I can agree with that.”

 

The following day, Shiro opens his door and halts before he can trip over a pot, filled with dark red flowers. He hefts it up and finds a simple note, written in Keith’s handwriting.

_From your not-so-secret admirer._

He laughs softly to himself, looking up at the door across from his before taking the pot inside. He goes about finding the perfect place for them and getting them some water. He figures Keith must have done some research for these ones, but he knows exactly what they are and what they mean.

_Red Carnations._

_Deep Love._

_“Yes.”_

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!


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